1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an electromagnetic relay with a card transmitting an armature movement to a movable contact for contact closing and opening, and particularly to a miniature relay with a space saving card supporting and driving structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been proposed in the art a number of electromagnetic relays with a card interconnecting an armature and a movable spring carrying a movable contact for converting the armature movement into contact closing and opening movement of the movable spring. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,179 discloses a typical electromagnetic relay in which the card is supported by a partition which is provided for electrical insulation between an electromagnet and a contact assembly arranged in a side-by-side relation along a length of a relay housing. The electromagnet comprises an armature movable between two contact operating positions in response to energization and deenergization of an excitation coil. The contact assembly includes the movable spring and the fixed contact. The card is slidably supported to the partition such that it is allowed to move along the length of the housing through the partition and act on the movable spring for engaging and disengaging the movable contact to and from the fixed contact in response to the armature movement. In order to stably support the card, the partition is specifically designed to have a pair of slits spaced in the sliding direction of the card so that the card can be supported at two spaced points in the sliding direction of the card with one end of the card projecting away from the slit into abutment with the armature and with the other end of the card projecting into abutment with the movable spring. That is, the two slits are aligned in the sliding direction of the card with the engaging portion between the armature and the card. However, this structure requires an extra amount of projection of the card toward the armature to such an extent that the armature will not conflict with the partition in its forward stroke of moving the card outwardly for contact closing. Such extra amount of projection therefore adds a correspondingly increased dimension to the card supporting and driving structure or the overall lengthwise dimension, which imposes a limitation on the miniaturization of the relay, particularly, in the lengthwise dimension thereof.